The maintenance of a balanced immune system is important to human health. On the one hand, reduced immunity can leave an individual vulnerable to attack from foreign microorganisms. On the other, individuals with hyper-active immune systems can suffer from mild to severe allergies. Common allergic symptoms include sneezing, asthma, diarrhea, skin itching, hives, and angioedema. In rare cases, allergies can result in severe or deadly symptoms such as anaphylactic shock. While allergies can be a mild irritant, they can also have a significant impact on an individual's daily activities and quality of life. Although allergies typically develop during childhood, allergies may develop at any time during an individual's lifespan.
A limited number of treatments exist to address the problem of allergies. In some patient populations, certain allergies can be treated with pharmaceuticals, including antihistamines and eicosanoid inhibitors. Despite available treatment options, the prevalence of allergies in the global population is increasing, such that allergies are now considered an epidemic by The World Health Organization.
There are likely several reasons for the increase in allergies among global populations. First, available treatment options are often inappropriate for all populations. For example, due to potential side effects, pharmaceuticals may be inappropriate for children and infants, a population in which allergies are highly prevalent and ever-increasing. Second, available treatment options do not address all types of allergies. For example, food allergies, in particular, have no effective drug therapy. As a result, avoidance of the triggering foods or antigens is often the only course of action for affected individuals. Third, available treatment options do not fully address the underlying causes of allergies. For example, the nervous system plays an important role in regulating immune responses associated with allergic inflammation as well as gastrointestinal symptoms associated with a food allergy. While antihistamines address the immune system's role in an allergic response, they do not address the actions of the nervous system. Fourth, some treatment options may decrease natural defenses that help prevent allergic responses. For example, increasing antibiotic use in industrialized countries may disrupt normal microbiota-mediated mechanisms of immunological tolerance in the mucosa. This disruption of the natural microbiome can, in turn, lead to an increased susceptibility to immunological disorders including allergy.
It would be desirable to provide additional treatment options to reduce the risk of allergy development, help in the management of allergic disease, or both. Such treatments may reduce the severity of symptoms, increase the antigen exposure levels required to trigger allergic responses, or both. To be useful across patient populations, it would be beneficial to provide a benign approach to allergy treatment. To treat various types of allergies, it would be useful for the treatment to be available as multiple formulations such as nutritionals, dietary supplements, or topical products. Where pharmaceuticals are useful, it would be helpful to provide new treatments that complement existing pharmaceutical approaches to allergy control. Where pharmaceuticals are inappropriate or ineffective, it is desirable to offer alternative approaches to allergic disease management. To support natural defenses to allergies, it would be helpful for the treatment options to promote the body's natural microbiome, or to help reestablish it, or both.